Assignment 3: Part 1
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This week I’ve been provided with the character concept for Assignment 3 from a client. Here’s the concept sheet.
The instructions I received involved a fairly detailed ghoul-like creature. A horrid construct created by dark forces to do their bidding. While terrifying, my client wanted another side of the character to be reflected as well. It would be as if this creature wasn’t completely mindless, but had in fact started to regain some semblance of thought and identity. It would have started to realise what it has become, and being utterly distraught by it.
Character Background “The ghoul as I said is mindless drone forced to do his masters bidding. The soul of the creature it used to be still inside screaming out in pain but is never heard. But this ghoul is different, strong of spirit he has been able to regain control to a certain point. When the dark lord has his focus else where this ghoul is able to move on his own accord and control his own body. In extreme agony and with a wish to die he manages to get to the wizard of the high tower, a great sorcerer of the light, to ask him for help in getting released from his bodily prison.”
World The setting is that of a human kingdom that has prospered for many years despite having been beset by enemies time and again. Once more war looms on the horizon, as a terrible force of dark and ancient powers seek to usurp the summer-clad realm once and for all. It is a world of massive conflicts uprooting the very foundations of human civilization. Battles rage between the light-wielding humans and deformed unholy monstrosities of the Dark Lord. The latter are not the aggressors, however. It was the humans that came to this dark world, imposing their light upon it and disrupting its natural order. A cause which the natives of this plane no doubt find unacceptable, and feel compelled to drive back the living to whatever gods who sent them.
Visual Style The visual portrayal of the world is a split one. The dark and shadowy realm of the Dark Lord working much in contrast to the human kingdom of light and warmth. While the latter is pure and inviting with lively colours and relaxing light, the Shadow Realm is cold and utterly repulsive. Whatever can be called alive in this place has been twisted and deformed on such levels that it is outright toxic to its surroundings. The colours are cold and disgusting, with different variations of entropy and decay the further in you travel into this nightmarish landscape. A reflection of its vile nature and intent, filled with creatures that only want to snuff out any spark of light that they see and taint whatever flesh that is healthy.
Competitors Being a medieval fantasy setting, there is a severe risk of this setting being drowned in this massive genre. These are among the strongest competitors to consider. Skyrim
Warcraft
The Witcher
Making the game world’s aesthetics distinct from these massive franchises will help the setting stand out significantly and in turn making the game itself more noticeable on the market.
Personal Notes The story and its setting is a straight-forward struggle between good and evil. Or at least, what we commonly perceive those things as. It contains a twist that helps intrigue you beyond the over-arching conflict: The average, mindless minion of the villain’s armies being thrown into an existential crisis. It provides a shade of grey in a black-and-white world which doesn’t seem to fit in the established universe. I tend to see this as an opportunity rather than a problem however, as it makes it possible for the world to be enriched by new elements that are not established from the start. This could very well encourage the player and audience in general to explore the world and pay attention to everything that happens in an attempt to discover answers to the enigma of the sentient ghoul. It could provide openings for further means of learning about not just the character’s directly involved in the story, but also the world itself and its inner workings. Turning expectations on its head would without question keep you engaged in what’s going on.
Requirements for the Assignment The most obvious thing to learn in order to complete this assignment would be to have at least a basic understanding of skeleton and muscle structure. This is new territory for me, and my ability to grasp such organic models will be key. What I have concerns about the most is regarding the use of software. Using 3DS Max for inanimate objects is all well and good, but I wonder if it is adequate for this task. Unless there are methods I simply haven’t made myself familiar with yet, I think I will need to look for other programs that are more capable of efficiently creating uneven and organic compositions. If only for the initial modelling process.
Risks The greatest risk at this current time would appear to be giving a believable look to the character’s body structure both on a micro and macro scale. As I lack any experience with this, constructing a muscle structure that looks like it serves a purpose for the body will require a lot of practice, and even then the results might not be favourable. Even if I manage to make all the limbs and pieces look adequate I must still make sure that it looks like it’s part of a single organism. As mentioned earlier, this assignment would seem to require a different set of tools and procedures in order to capture the desired organic look and feel of the model. So not only do I have to learn a new modelling method, but also how the provided software works in this regard if not an entirely new one.
Hopefully it will go better than I feared. Until next time!
Björn Erik Berndtsson. Graphics and Game Design. |
